Thursday, December 10, 2015

New version of Paris climate agreement text released

French Foreign Minister and president of Paris climate conference Laurent Fabius presented a new clean version of text for a global climate agreement on Wednesday as a basis for further negotiations among countries in the next 48 hours.The new text, including a core agreement and accompanying decisions, runs to 29 pages, much shorter than the 43-page version that countries reached last Saturday.

"We've made progress, but still a number of work needs to be done," Fabius told delegates from nearly 200 countries in Le Bourget conference center on the outskirts of Paris.

According to him, three quarters of the nearly 1000 brackets which represented disagreements were removed from the text. The main outstanding issues that remain to be resolved include post-2020 climate finance, ambition of action and how to reflect the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" in all elements of the new agreement.

Fabius said the new text was based on the draft reached last Saturday and result of consultations made among countries in the past two days.

"It is not the final version of the agreement," he said, but a basis upon which countries would continue to seek compromise. Fabius wished countries to reach the final agreement by December 11.

China's Special Envoy on Climate Change Xie Zhenhua said Chinese delegation was analyzing this new text and would consult with its partners in the BASIC group, which also includes India, Brazil and South Africa, and in the group of G77, as well as developed countries.

"We are striving to contribute to the success of the conference, to reach a comprehensive, balanced, legally binding agreement which is applicable to all," Xie said.

"Tonight will be a sleepless night," he said.Xinhua - globaltimes.cn10/12/15

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Organisers of the climate talks in Paris say a final draft text has been agreed after nearly two weeks of intensive negotiations.

An official in the office of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the AFP news agency the draft would be presented to ministers at 10:30 GMT.

No details of the proposed agreement have been released so far.

The tentative deal was reached nearly 16 hours after the talks had been scheduled to close.

"We have a text to present," the official said, adding that the draft would be now translated into the UN's six official languages.

Analysts say that this is not a done deal - ratification will only take place if there are no objections raised at Saturday morning's ministerial meeting, and even is unlikely to come before afternoon in the French capital.

Mr Fabius, who has presided over the talks, had said earlier that the "conditions were never better" for a strong and ambitious agreement.....BBC12/12/15

"It confirms our key objective, the objective which is vital, that of continuing to have a mean temperature well below two degrees and to endeavour to limit that increase to one point five degrees," he told countries.

French President Francois Hollande, who joined the meeting on Saturday, called the proposal unprecedented........BBC

EL Kaos UT

The UN has imposed a 2013 deadline for the submission of scientific claims to the Arctic seabed. It is the precursor to a resource boom which would see Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Greenland all attempt to exploit the region's resources.